PictureEditor-in-chief Marion Horn has asked her boss, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, to apologize for controversial statements. In a comment published on the website on Friday evening, Horn wrote: “Yes, Mathias Döpfner texted sentences that are absolutely wrong as they stand. But that’s not what we think at Bild or in this publisher. Actually it is an apology is due, boss!”
The weekly newspaper The time reported on Thursday about messages that are said to have been sent within the company at Springer. The newspaper referred to documents that are said to have come from previous years. It is about e-mails and chat messages from the closest management circle of the media group, many are from the Springer boss himself.
The newspaper listed quotes. For example, it was about derogatory comments about East Germans or criticism of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Before the general election, Döpfner should get FDP-friendly reporting from the Picture have wished. Horn, since last month chairman of the PictureEditor-in-Chief, admitted in her comment: “The publication of private messages from our CEO unsettles the Bild team, our families, friends and our readers. Many are angry because, for example, he made disrespectful comments about East Germans. I like it neither does that.”
The comment is captioned: “I won’t let anyone tell me what Picture has to write.” Elsewhere, Horn writes about Döpfner, who also holds a larger part of the group shares: “Our first principle is to stand up for freedom.” That also means that Picture free to report as the newspaper sees fit. “And Mathias Döpfner defends this freedom every day, even against resistance from politics, business and culture.”
After publication of Timearticle, Döpfner had spoken out on the company’s intranet: “My articles, which have been published for more than four decades, show what I think. I take responsibility for every word that is published. Text and conversation snippets taken out of context cannot be considered my ” “true thinking” must be set against it.”